All posts for the month October, 2012

The innocence of childhood is something very hard to grasp for our adult abd reasonable society. Even though I often claim I am somewhat immature, I must accept for me it is a daunting task just to try to teach children a new language. For me, the mental structures, no matter how hard I claim mine are young, are totally different from the children’s to ours.

But if there is someone that really caught my eye on the topic of the mind of an infant in development, then it is Bill Watterson, a caricaturist that is recognized for his seemingly innocent Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. For someone who has not read him, this is a must. Calvin, a boy around ten years old, struggles to be part of a society while trying to live in the broad world of his fantastic delusions.

But the innocence portrayed here is not merely the typical purity we adults try to make other adults believe. The boy is smart, and his tiger counterpart Hobbes just serves to emphasize this trait. We never know if the tiger is real or just a figment of the imagination of Calvin. Even though evidence suggests all is in the mind, somehow the reader immediately feels that this explanation is way too simplistic.

The dialogues are rich and deep many of the times. How many comics do you see where the main protagonist struggles with the understanding of nature of death while making us, despite the tragic situation, smirk at how we feel in those moments?

For me Hobbes is this second part Calvin has to subdue to be part of a society we never wish to be born into. There is an inherent struggle in this clever pair, which even in the worst situation keeps a friendship. An introvert friendship in the eyes of the world, for sure, but is it maybe not the sign of a peace of mind many of us desire with ourselves?

It is difficult to explain such a master work as Calvin & Hobbes. For me, this is one of the best cartoons ever written. I prefer Garfield, but if my craving for cheap laughs would not be active, Calvin & Hobbes would be the best thing ever written.

All I can do is recommend reading this interesting Sunday comic, and just enjoying the innocence paired up with a critique to the modern human self. If you don’t like it, then all you have lost is ten minutes of your time.

While checking some things to do a presentation and to finish off the new series I have been trying to focus on for weeks, I came upon this little bit of interesting information that kind of made me wonder why no one ever tried to implement it. The whole post, thus, will be about reading and writing… in your fantasy world.

What makes the fantasy genre so special is the whole new world feeling. Thousands of writers have focused for decades, even before Tolkien, to create new languages and alphabets. It is just fascinating to try to understand the psyche of your characters through how they write. But then, as far as I have read, I have never seen anyone mention an important factor that defines cultures when it goes to writing and reading; especially reading!

If someone checks out really old documents of the roman era, he will discover that these documents lack of something seemingly basic, which for our modern society is obvious: spaces, punctuation marks, capital letters, etc. This is because they were not necessary: reading had a totally different function. Let us first do a little experiment. Read the following text I just randomly created:

The following example is not impossible to read. It will just take a little more to understand, since you will have to create your sentences as you read. This scripta continua, or just continuous writing, forces you to read slowly, to interpret the text word by word, so you can find the limits of each idea and sentence.

Monks writing in the Middle ages. Notice how there are different functions whe it comes to writing.

This is not a terrible idea. Back in the Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages reading was an oral act of community. Someone usually read a text aloud for everyone, so he had to be sure on how to pronounce the words and speak it correctly. Also, according to some studies, the continuous writing permits the reader to analyze and memorize the text while he decodes it. The aforementioned writing process is a slower one. The monks who copied and wrote texts in the medieval era had to go to a scriptorium, a room where they had a piece of furniture much similar to the one the artists use now for comics, so they could “draw” the book. Yes, you read exactly, the people in the Middle Ages did not write as we conceive it now, but rather drew and copied.

Punctuation and separation is an invention that found its genesis in Ireland, around the VIth-VIIIth centuries. They started to give order to the information. Later on, around the XIth centuries, indexes and other important helping tools were created to finally give the book the form we read it today.

Private and silent reading was invented. Before that, enunciation was extremely important, since it helped the reader to listen to himself and, thus, to separate the words easier. After the separations expanded all throughout Europe, reading out loud or even murmuring a text was not necessary anymore. This led to private reading, which was capable of creating heretics to the church – or science.

One last thing of importance is that the writing as we know it today permits an easier finding of a specific quote or piece of information one may need. Thus, the information stored can be found much easier, making the activity less a memorization act and more an information act. Scholasticism and Nominalism used the new systems to create better understanding of the theories available in that time period and people who did not read centuries before finally had an easier way to learn that skill. With the arrival of printing press, the final blow had been given to exclusive reading groups, making it easier to access information for much less money.

This raises the question: how do the people read in your culture? Is it still a deeply oralized culture that uses continuous writing or is the reading now easier? How do your characters relate to the reading? Is it harder for them because the page is scrambled all over with letters or are they curious about the separated words? Or do they just prefer to hear someone else reading the text for him? At the end, the characters could still be a man of memory and recite the epics he likes, ignoring totally the scripted word. This is now up to you, but the inclusion of this element could change the psychology of your heroes and villains.

Well, I hope this was a useful bit of information. I have still a bit to do for my new series of posts, but I hope this one at least helped the writers to thing about how the writing looks in your far away universes. As for now, I leave you pondering on that. Please comment and ask if you think something is missing.

Now we approach to the second part of this top six. This time it is turn for PETA to get some tips on what other franchises we enjoyed during our childhoods they can ruin. After all, after already criticising Pokémon and Mario, why stop? There is so much animal injustice in our fictional worlds, that we really can not afford to help the ones in the real world. A big round of applause for our activists!

4- Final Fantasy

Here is a lot we could fight for. For example, the Chocobos. Those poor animals are used as mounts and to run highly technological engines all over the different worlds of the series. Worst of all, they are forced to eat between siblings so they can acquire some special color. This is really something we need to stop, for the good of these birds’ genetic pools.

By the way, how many different kinds of animals have the heroes slaughtered on their way to destroy the ultimate evils? I just can’t remember how many bled to death after just playing Final Fantasy VII, let alone the other games. That is an example we do not want to set for our children: brutalizing animals on our way to school and leaving them helpless lying on the ground, if not dead. The horror!

5- World of Warcraft

What is the base of the economy of the world of Azeroth? It is not magical items, that is for sure. As a matter of fact, it is the killing of hundreds of animal all around the continents to gather their parts of the bodies to re-use to keep the economic machine moving. All WOW players, be honest: how many boars did you behead to get just their hide? How many felines and other kinds of creatures prowling the lands did you burn? All this just to get ahold of their teeth and the occasional coins they swallow on their travels. This definitely has to stop!

6- Disney

Now, you might ask yourself what is wrong with that one. The answer is much simpler than you might think. First of, to be part of the team all characters have to go trough a ritual of auto-mutilation: cutting the fifth finger off, just look at Goofy’s hand. Then we have always the same situation: the animals are always subordinate to the humans. Just look at Ariel, or Rapunzel, or even Snow White. Animal always play a second role even though they help the heroes in their time of need. This is the worst kind of oppression: the one that is not spoken of.

Now, I hope you enjoyed this little moment of randomness. If you have a little franchise that could also be attacked, make sure to let me know on the comments. In any case, I hope this will be the last bad move of PETA and they will focus on more important things than making nonsensical flash games.

Now they did it. It was bad enough to use Mario Bros. as a way to protest against animal furs in a… somewhat… ugly fashion (and then claims it was a joke). Now they rallied their guns towards Pokémon as a symbol of animal oppression. As far as I can think, it is one of those moments I wish they knew how to spend money on real issues, but no, time-approved video games are the obvious goal.

I may understand how the Catch ’em All game can be a focus, since it is basically a cock-fight in children’s terms, but let us be honest: those kids who pit their dogs against their neighbor’s cats will maybe come out very empty-handed. In any case, as I already commented once, if the parents take the time to explain the kids the issues around the game, I doubt very much it can come up to a great deal of trouble.

I decided thus to make a list of other six franchises PETA can attack with joy and glee. I think it is worth to spend their money on that instead of -oh- maybe whaling, seal clubbing and other similar things. Again, I remind you that this top six is not placed in order or importance, it is just a list I came up with. And again, I will display the first three today and the next three on friday. Enjoy!

1- The Flinstones

PETA, how could you have been so blind? The whole idea of this franchise os to torture animals and to enslave them for the use of man. Since the 60s the Flinstones and all of Bedrock have terrorized and forced the poor dinosaurs and similar animals to do their dirty work: Brontosaurus used as excavators, even drawbridges, birds destroying their beaks while turning down the volume and Mammoths blasting hot water through their trunks. Oh the horror!

And worst of all, they do complain about their working conditions! I really think these animals have the right of a better treatment, or don’t they? And this has been running for over fifty years!

2- Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Now, this is an obvious one. They may look as humans, but they are all animals inside: the turtles, Beebop and Splinter are all victims of a hate campaign that this evil masked terror with a brain make to torture the peace of mind of our beloved heroes. He pits them into fights, one on one, and then sends his man minions to kick them in the nuts to make sure they will never stand up. All they want is to live in the sewer and enjoy their pizza!

3- Donkey Kong

Now, why not? The whole lizard section of PETA should be up in arms for this one. All kinds of gators are stepped on to get some filthy bananas that gorilla wants. And what could we do with all the reptile bodies lying around in the dirt? How about some nice purses and belts? Donkey kong should be tranquilized and sent to a Zoo, so the reptile population can recover itself… with the inclusion of some innocent beavers, bees,… I mean, some of the gators must be in peril of extinction. Better get their back and accuse this pretending human and his Kong family to take responsibility for the damage they are doing to the environment!

Now, these are the first three. The next ones are up on friday, but if you think there is another franchise that deserves PETAs attention, I am very much up to hear your opinion. Let them ruin our childhood memories as it is deserved while they empty their coffers for those worthy causes! After all, real animals are not suffering at the moment…

Originally I was very skeptic of the change DC had made when I got my hands on the first issues of the reboot. In a previous post I clearly said that only huge fans of the universe would, maybe, notice the difference from the regular old series to the “new” one. But now, to my displeasure, there was an announcement of the #0 issues. First question: is that another reboot? After clarification I was not sure what to think. Now I know I like them.

And it is not the story I have come to like. To be honest, I think it will open a lot of plot holes, making Detective Comic’s wet dream of getting a consistent continuity impossible. But when did we see the comics as an exact representation of our reality?

What I really loved is the idea of creating a new timeline. Now, from the dangerous current events Batman is knee-deep in, to the start of his vigilante career is barely six years. This included a re-thinking and the updating of the situation of Bruce’s tragic loss. Everything looks more modern and makes now more sense. Wayne is not over 70 years old by normal world standards and the city has not changed too much from the start of his career to the moment we read the comics. This is opposed to the original creation myth of the bat, which had happened in a 30s style city, creating this strange situation in which the character had not aged at all, but the city had undergone so many vast changes.

Now, plot holes are unavoidable. First off, my criticism towards the existence of Damian stands. I don’t like him, no matter how much interesting conflict it brings in the Batman-Robin relationship. I just can’t understand why Bruce has to have a son. And now with the six-year timeline… how is it even possible that the boy is ten now?

Second, and this relates to the previous points, I can’t just imagine all the things Batman has done over the last almost-century are now to be compressed in only six years. So many happenings, so many details. Now we are led to believe he lived through them in a short time period?

Finally, the story has converted Batman into a paranoid man who thinks the death of his parents was due to an enemy of his father. Somehow DC is steering now to find the real murderer of the Dark Knight, trying to uncover a deep mystery behind all that marked the millionaire’s life. How much of this will come out, though, is not quite sure. In any case, it would not shock me to see an explanation based on some conspiracy that provoked the death of the Wayne’s. How much this will benefit the mythos, I am not quite sure. But I don’t know if the motivation will change once we now why really Thomas died, since the mindless violence was what originally drew out the persona out of young Bruce.

Don’t get me wrong here. I loved these new #0 issues. If the company would have released those before the #1s, I would have not complained about the reset at all. Now that I can see, as an amateur fan, the difference, I finally can see a new direction and the changes in the way we perceive Batman. All is left to do is to hope it gets better. Just try not to get confused with the time issue created by the reboot. I have learned that many years ago.

This article starts with a little disclaimer. I am not a fan of Assassin’s Creed. In fact, I only tried to play the Game Boy DS game, but I never passed the first level. It may be a great game. What I am criticising here though, is not the game and its gameplay. I am criticising the consistency of something that came into my attention.

So here I was, minding my own business, watching my Pats game and relaxing after a somewhat hard week when I saw the trailer to AC3. I had heard about it before and did not care much. I even thought it was a good idea to let the Brotherhood live on until the American Independence. After all, this story alone is a powder keg for conspiration theories. I loved the idea.

But what really dissed me was the suit. Let me get that straight: since the XVth century there was no change in clothing of the assassins? Just see that trailer I found in Youtube:

Now, this is supposed to be a ninja!

Now, I don’t know it is only me, but what is the guy doing dressed as somebody from 300 years ago? It is the same problem with the Naruto ninja. Assassins try to blend in their surrounding, try to be part of their environment to be able to reach their targets as good as possible. This objective is defeated just by how he looks! Naruto is orange, thus very easy to spot in the night. The assassin in AC3 is dressed in a way I don’t doubt the common man on the street will raise his brow. This way of dressing MAY have worked in the Renaissance era, but in the modern ages, where everyone is dressing differently… Is this game for real?

I know the get-up is wicked cool. I love how this character looks. But the can’t keep dressing like that forever. And even less participate in the battlefield the way he does. That assassin may be the worst I have ever seen in my life! It is as if they lost track of time. In that case… why has nobody already arrested them, since they seem to be so obviously out-of-place? I don’t even care for weapons, since most of them were, in one way or another, still in use.

I know games are about fantasy, but consistency is also the ability to predict things that may look not right. The way the main character dresses is just not smart, no matter how much imagination they put in. I hope the game itself has a very good excuse to explain this, but meanwhile, this is a huge fail for me. No matter how good the game may be. So much for going undetected.

When it comes to The Legend of Zelda, I think that I just praise it too much. Every time I play one of those games I get overly excited and I just love to take Link all over Hyrule (or wherever he is in that moment) and just explore the different places it offers. If there is a series that has definitely conquered my heart, it is that one specifically. But where does that strange love come from? It all can be answered in one of the older Nintendo game systems.

Long before emulation, long before this huge explosion in mainstream, long before I was a real gamer myself, there was the Game Boy. I had played before the NES and my parents kept hiding an Atari 2600 in their closet, which I occasionally got to play. But my first real gaming system was the portable one. I kept saving my lunch money for weeks, even did some paid chores, to get my own Game Boy, since my parents did not want me to have one. Once they noticed they could not beat me on what I wanted, they even helped a little bit.

Needless to say, my first own game was… Tetris. Now, this one was the stock game and, in my specific case, also a crappy tennis game that was included in an offer. Now, the first game has its own story, but I think most of you enjoyed it like crazy. The same happened to me.

Now, for the next game I saved up for this cartridge inside a golden box that had drawn my attention. A friend of mine recommended it to me a lot. So, after a lot of excitement building up, I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. A game I put great expectations in, and although it was not what I had imagined, it bewildered me forever. Just to tell you how much I liked it, I will mention that it is the game that I finished most of the times with 100% of the items. And I would, still now, do it again.

Getting the sword!

Now, what made this game a gem? Well, I can’t quite put my finger on it. But there are multiple reasons we could approach to: there is the exploration, which I was a fan of, the strange characters like the Stalfos that stole my dungeon item, the lady with the miraculous potion and that weird Walrus that blocked my way.

Also, there was a lot of action. From one side to the other I killed a myriad of creatures, each one in its own specific enviroment, each one with a new detail. Also the dungeons were interesting. Short, that may be (except for the seventh), but all had something new.

The game felt very well-rounded, except for the last two lairs (seven and eight), because their items were barely used in the game. But it was a consistent game with an interesting story, and though the programmers forgot to deepen the philosophical part, it really made me consider if I should just finish the game or if there was a second ending in which the island was not a dream. The game was so good that both flaws were easily forgotten, and only come to my mind because I have grown up and become more critical than when I was ten years old.

The ultimate goal: to wake up by awakening the Wind Fish.

Maybe it is not the greatest game in the series, but it holds a special place in my heart. Even though I already stated that A Link to the Past was my favourite, Link’s Awakening is a close second, followed by Twilight Princess. This gem the Game Boy had to offer really would leave any Zelda fan satisfied with what they had just played and I still recommend it. On Hella’s name, I even recommend it over the Game Boy Color version which, even though it had some extra stuff, really felt like some thrown-in things with no real sense and that took the whole experience off-balance. But maybe this is just me.

In any case, if you have never played it before and you are interested in a quick and fun adventure, I definitely do recommend to get this game. It will surely not be forgotten, specially after playing the seventh lair, in which you had to carry a wrecking ball around the tower to knock one whole floor down to be able to kill the boss. Yeah, it was that crazy!

See you next time then!

May they smile upon your way!

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Welcome to a blog of gaming, movies, books and some history. In here I explore the stories that have carried us over decades, yes, even centuries, to what defines us today. I hope you enjoy it and comment, I am always open to respond!
This blog is updated whenever possible, once a week.